


The Emperor Wanes

by calico_fiction



Series: little cuts [6]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Body Image, F/M, Friendship, Government, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Light Angst, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, POV Outsider, Politics, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Relationship, Responsibility, Romance, Sibling Bonding, Trust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:35:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22279513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calico_fiction/pseuds/calico_fiction
Summary: Thor is not Odin's son right now. Right now he is King. And Valkyrie thinks, maybe, she could trust him.
Relationships: Bruce Banner & Thor, Brunnhilde | Valkyrie & Thor (Marvel), Brunnhilde | Valkyrie/Thor (Marvel), Heimdall & Thor (Marvel), Loki & Thor (Marvel)
Series: little cuts [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1121556
Comments: 2
Kudos: 73





	The Emperor Wanes

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Empire by Dar Williams.
> 
> Rated for language and alcohol abuse.

The room on the ship that has become their de facto strategy room, a small circular offshoot of the bridge that must have once been where the captain could take private hails, is barren and chilly. It's small and closed up so the recycled air is even more stale here than everywhere else on board. There is nothing inside it but a circular table, no chairs. The last Valkyrie still remembers what it was like inside Odin's strategy rooms and this is jarring in comparison. It makes her mind spin almost as much as a really good shot.

Odin's strategy rooms were filled with low ambient light and shiny dark wood and blood red accents, and long rectangular tables for Odin to sit at the head of. The Valkyrior, if they were even invited, were expected to line the walls in uniform like heroic statues. Here and now, the wood of the round table is unpolished and scuffed underneath Thor's equally roughened hands where he leans on it heavily, the flaws of both thrown into stark relief by the harsh fluorescents along the upper walls. The skin visible around Thor's eye patch is still red and swollen and his hair is sticking up in a thousand directions, full of static either from a recent sonic shower or else self-inflicted. He's wearing a clingy but soft-looking shirt, lounge pants, and canvas shoes. Genetic resemblance aside, he couldn't look less like Odin if he tried with all his (allegedly considerable) might.

Valkyrie herself has shown up in basically her pajamas too, though the decision to do so had been belligerent and she'd thought she'd be under-dressed. She also brought a bottle of something golden brown and pungent she found in a closet, but the urge to pointedly drink from it is a little bit lessened now that she sees The Great King Of Asgard looking just like any other tired refugee - just like all the rest of them. Maybe her bullshit isn't necessary (yet). Loki and Heimdall are here too, and Bruce. Bruce's outfit is almost identical to Thor's, though he wears his shirt a little less fitted and has his arms folded self-consciously across his chest. Heimdall wears a sleeveless robe over a leather vest and Loki is in a black suit. He's so fucking obnoxious. The four of them gather, with varying degrees of closeness, around the new All-Father. Valkyrie places herself directly across from him. Whatever this is about, she wants to watch him as close as she can when he tells them, and she wants him to have to look her in the eye. Just in case.

Thor breathes deeply once they all go still. He stands up, straightens his shoulders, lifts his chin. He looks like a teenager playing grown-up for a school presentation. Valkyrie feels a twinge of sympathy and takes a sip from her pilfered bottle of stuff to make it go away. The taste is foul but it burns in the back of her throat the same as any other liquor, and what more can she ask than that.

"What would you guys say if I said I wanted to change how Asgard's governing body is structured?" Thor asks.

"Why am I here?" Bruce answers immediately. There's an awkward pause before he adds nervously, "I mean, I'm not Asgardian, right?"

"Uh," Thor says after another pause. Very unkingly, the word 'uh'. Valkyrie smiles to herself, an expression that's half at Thor's expense and half charmed by him. He scratches the back of his head, flinching a little at the prickle of his short hair (Valkyrie takes another drink). "Right," he agrees, and looks away from Bruce again, mumbling, "I just really value your input because you're my best friend." Heimdall raises an eyebrow silently and Thor freezes in place like a rabbit in order to more thoroughly avoid looking at him. Valkyrie hears Loki snicker quietly from where he's leaning against the wall off to her left. Bruce doesn't respond, but he looks a little less cagey. He really needs to find a way to relax.

"Anyway!" Thor continues, a touch too loudly. "The people need to be more involved in... stuff." Loki laughs again. It's a little giggle this time, surprisingly muffled as if he bothered to cover his mouth.

"' _Stuff_ '," he repeats to himself. Valkyrie feels herself smile again but she doesn't want to laugh at something Loki said so she drinks to occupy her mouth with doing something else instead. Thor has to turn his head to glare effectively at Loki where Loki's standing. Valkyrie can practically feel the waves of unrepentant amusement coming off of him against her back. He probably stood over there for that express purpose, the little shit.

"Odin..." Thor trails off, and Valkyrie can hear him swallow from across the table. She waits, wondering if he has the balls to say what Odin was out loud. Half of her sympathizes still, or maybe pities him. Odin was his father after all, and supposedly was a great deal nicer after burying all his fuck-ups including his daughter. But Thor can't be Odin's son all the time if he wants to be a better King. He has to be able to turn his personal feelings off and make decisions with the heart of his people instead. Thor lifts his chin again. "Odin was a bad King. He had too much power and he abused it." Good.

"I want..." Thor stutters to a halt again. "The people should..." He sighs and all but collapses back onto his palms on the table.

"Did you not practice your speech in the mirror enough, All-Father?" Loki teases gleefully.

"I covered my mirror," Thor mutters absently, not paying his brother or his own words any mind as he tries to arrange the more important ones in his head. Loki's mirth evaporates instantly, and Valkyrie drinks. The rest of the time Thor spends figuring out how to say what he wants to say is spent in a respectful silence. It's been a long time since Valkyrie participated in one of those. It feels heavy. She doesn't hate it.

"Odin had too much power and he abused it," Thor repeats finally. "The only way to make sure I don't abuse that same power is to take some of it away." Thor looks up then, straight up, right at Valkyrie. It could almost seem performative to check with her like that, but if Sakaar did nothing else for her it truly honed her talent at reading people and Thor is earnest. Her hand tightens reflexively around the neck of her bottle. She doesn't nod at him. She doesn't give him her approval for this - this bare minimum that she still hadn't expected him to meet on his own, at least not yet.

"Structure would be better so early in your rule," Loki puts forth but it almost sounds rote, argument for argument's sake. Thor must agree because he ignores it entirely.

"Midgardians may think us gods but we aren't, and certainly none of us are gods to each other. A King should be trusted, not worshiped."

"In what way would you change the body to achieve this, my King?" Heimdall asks calmly. He's so absolutely unflappable Valkyrie can't help but be impressed.

"The people vote on all political decisions," Thor lists promptly, as if he was waiting for his cue. "Members of the court, chosen by and including the King, get two votes but whatever the majority determines must be enacted. The people can make political requests of the court and they will be put to vote. Any request that is brought unanimously must be enacted without further ado. If the King loses the people's trust he can be removed from the court by a vote. At least one member of the court will be elected without input from the rest of the court and this courtier will be responsible for accepting and publicly declaring requests, for accountability's sake."

Valkyrie's mind has gone back to spinning again. Just seconds ago she had guessed that Thor wanted to declare a few lines he couldn't cross, until such time as he decided he really needed to. But apparently he wasn't kidding about changing the governing body's structure. Apparently he wasn't kidding about taking away some of his own power. And, it seems, adding to his responsibility, despite how what he's got is already all but a visible weight on his shoulders. She knew, kind of, that he was honorable - or at least more honorable than Odin and Hela (and Loki). She knew, kind of, that he had at least _some_ humility. Just enough that she decided to follow him, despite the kingdom's past; just enough that she thought maybe things could be different, maybe she could help make them different (make up for how they were, how she was). But her hopes were not this high. Not for Odin's son.

But. Thor is not Odin's son right now. Right now he is King. And Valkyrie thinks, maybe, she could trust him.

"I'm into it," she says, breaking the silence that fell after Thor finished his list. He looks at her again. If she expected some of that puppyish joy she'd caught a few glimpses of on Sakaar to be waiting in his eye at her approval she doesn't find it. Instead Thor's expression is still and quiet like the air just after a storm, the heavy petrichor of a fresh start after everything has been flooded and swept away.

"Yeah," Bruce agrees, easily now that someone else has started. "A constitutional monarchy. I mean, if you write all that down."

"Definitely write it down," Valkyrie demands, pointing across the table at Thor roughly and making the liquor in her bottle slosh around noisily. He cracks a reluctant smile at her. She drinks before she can feel too good about it. "Make copies," she adds. "Spread it around. Hire a fucking bard." Thor laughs shortly. Valkyrie looks away to drink this time.

"Maybe I will," he says. His smile sounds good in his voice, warm. She can feel him watching her (warm).

"It's a very direct system," Loki says, cutting through whatever moment they're having. Valkyrie is momentarily conflicted between irritation and gratitude, hates both of those options, and takes another sip to help rinse them away.

"We're small enough for it, for now," Heimdall points out. "We can add clauses for it to be changed when we grow enough." His tone is simultaneously mournful, optimistic, and pragmatic. Valkyrie wonders if he's always that intricately faceted or if politics is a special occasion.

"There's, uh-" Thor stutters again. It's almost a relief to hear it after he spoke so perfectly so many times in a row. He's still the same noble idiot. "There's one more thing." He turns completely away from the round table, away from the rest of them, to face Loki alone. Valkyrie turns to look at the younger brother, curious, and she knows Bruce does too. She can't see Heimdall anymore now, this way, but she can only assume that he gracefully turns his head just so to put Loki better in his sights as well.

"I'll still seek your personal advice, because you're my brother," Thor explains to Loki, apologetic but immovable. "But the people should decide if you should be given any of your political powers back." Valkyrie gives a low whistle.

"Tough break, Lackey," she jibes. Loki shoots her a cursory glare. Then he shrugs and waves a hand in acceptance.

"I can hardly argue," he admits grudgingly.

"Is it just me or did that seem to easy?" Bruce wonders of the room. Loki shoots him a glare too, this one significantly sharper and meaner. Valkyrie has to hand it to him that despite how jittery and nervous Bruce seems, he isn't intimidated enough to step back or flinch or even so much as blink. Thor laughs again, quiet but genuine. Valkyrie doesn't look at him. There's absolutely no reason to turn around and look at him just because he's happy.

"Alright," Thor says, closing the meeting. "Heimdall and I will write up the new laws today. Tomorrow night we'll hold a conference after dinner, explain everything to the people, and put Loki's reinstatement as Prince to vote." There's a sharp thud and Valkyrie assumes he must have slapped the table to punctuate himself. She still doesn't turn around. It's just better to watch Loki's scowl slowly grow deeper as he thinks about having to face literally any consequences at all.

Seeing is wanting, after all. So it's safer just not to look.


End file.
